Semiconductors, or computer chips, are found in virtually every electrical product manufactured today. Chips are used not only in very sophisticated industrial and commercial electronic equipment, but also in many household and consumer items such as televisions, clothes washers and dryers, radios, and telephones. As products become smaller but more functional, there is a need to include more chips in the smaller products to perform the functionality. The reduction in size of cellular telephones is one example of how more and more capabilities are incorporated into smaller and smaller electronic products.
A so-called “flip chip” is generally a monolithic semiconductor device, such as an integrated circuit, having bead-like terminals formed on one surface of the chip. The terminals serve to both secure the chip to a circuit board and electrically connect the flip chip's circuitry to a conductor pattern formed on the circuit board, which may be a ceramic substrate, printed wiring board, flexible circuit, or a silicon substrate. Due to the numerous functions typically performed by the microcircuitry of a flip chip, a relatively large number of terminals are required.
Because of the fine patterns of the terminals and conductor pattern, soldering a flip chip to its conductor pattern requires a significant degree of precision. Reflow solder techniques are widely utilized in the soldering of flip chips. Such techniques typically involve forming solder bumps on the surface of the flip chip using methods such as electrodeposition, by which a quantity of solder is accurately deposited on one surface of the flip chip. Heating the solder above its melting temperature serves to form the characteristic solder bumps. The chip is then soldered to the conductor pattern by registering the solder bumps with their respective conductors, and reheating, or reflowing, the solder so as to metallurgically and electrically bond the chip to the conductor pattern.
In flip chip packaging and other semiconductor devices, a so-called “underfill” material is provided between the substrate and the die to promote device reliability characteristics. Various methods are known in the art for depositing the underfill material, including deposition through an opening of the substrate so as to fill in a gap between the substrate and the die. More recently, techniques involving the application of a film to the bumped wafer have been utilized.
Shortcomings associated with the current art remain. For example, removal of a film material from the bumped wafer can cause damage to the characteristic solder bumps. In addition, the prior art shows a two-step process of attaching a chip to the substrate, in which case, providing the underfill material results in an extra manufacturing step and the expenditure of excess resources.